DBS and Citi have completed the first successful weekend U.S. dollar payment between Singapore and New York using tokenized deposits on Swift’s blockchain-based Digital Ledger. The transaction, executed on September 5, was finalized within minutes rather than the conventional timeline of up to two business days.

The banks announced the live transfer on Monday. It connected DBS in Singapore with Citi’s New York office and demonstrated the ability to process payments outside standard operating hours. Neither institution disclosed the transaction amount, the participating customer, or any associated fees.

How the Swift Ledger Coordinates Tokenized Deposits

Tokenized deposits represent claims on commercial bank balance sheets. They remain bank liabilities rather than independently issued stablecoins backed by separate reserves. Swift’s Digital Ledger functions as an orchestration layer. It records, sequences and validates payment instructions between independently operated bank systems while applying transaction rules through smart contracts.

Final settlement continues to occur through established banking infrastructure. The design uses blockchain technology to coordinate value movement without placing the entire process or conventional settlement fully onchain. This approach allows institutions to maintain existing compliance, credit and risk controls while extending availability beyond normal cut-off times.

Second Live Transaction on the Network

The DBS-Citi payment marks the second confirmed live interbank transaction on Swift’s ledger. It follows an earlier transfer between HSBC and Standard Chartered completed in August. Swift made the ledger available for initial use in July after developing the first version in nine months. Seventeen banks across six continents joined the initial live transaction program.

Participating institutions include Citi, DBS, HSBC, BNP Paribas, BNY, Standard Chartered, UBS, Wells Fargo, ANZ and MUFG. DBS is the only Asian-headquartered bank in Swift’s 12-member core design group. Citi had previously completed live transactions with First Abu Dhabi Bank and Singapore-based OCBC and became the first U.S. bank to conduct native transactions on the ledger.

Citi stated it planned additional tests with DBS and United Overseas Bank during September. The completed weekend payment confirms the DBS portion of that schedule. The bank also reported that its existing Citi Token Services platform processes approximately $1 billion in transactions, while its round-the-clock dollar clearing service supports more than 300 banking clients.

Broader Context for Always-On Payments

Cross-border payments between Asia and the United States routinely face weekend delays. Corporate treasurers moving liquidity from Singapore to New York on a Friday typically wait until the following Monday. For firms operating continuous digital businesses, those gaps create costs through delayed supplier payments and immobilized working capital.

Asia’s outbound cross-border payments are projected to reach $24 trillion by 2033, nearly double the $13.5 trillion recorded in 2025. Half of finance leaders are already exploring blockchain capabilities for liquidity and foreign-exchange management, according to industry survey data cited in connection with the transaction.

DBS introduced its own blockchain-powered Token Services platform in 2024, including products that support programmable transfers and liquidity management. Rachel Chew, DBS group chief operating officer and co-head of digital assets, described the weekend transfer as evidence that tokenized money is moving from experimentation toward practical use. Wider deployment will require additional corridors, more participating banks and production-scale customer activity.

Parallel Initiatives in Tokenized Deposits

Citi is separately involved in a bank-owned U.S. tokenized deposit network. Major U.S. banks are targeting a 2027 launch through The Clearing House. In parallel, DBS and JPMorgan have outlined work on a blockchain-based tokenization framework intended to enable transfers between their respective deposit token systems.

Swift and the participating banks have not released a full production timetable, pricing model or expected transaction capacity. The immediate test remains whether controlled institutional transfers can expand into recurring commercial payments across more routes and at greater scale.